Appleton, Victor – Tom Swift Jr 23 – And His Aquatomic Tracker

Churning foam blinded the cabin window, but judging by the way the Sea Hound was gradually upending, it was obvious they were being drawn into the heart of the whirlpool.

Tom fought his way to the controls and shut off power to the rotor. Perhaps the resulting buoyancy, he thought hopefully, would be strong enough to bob the seacopter toward the surface. His hopes were soon dashed.

“We must be right in the vortex!” Tom gasped.

An instant later the cabin window cleared and light came flooding through the quartz glass pane. Tom now saw that a cavity had formed at the center of the whirlpool and that the seacopter’s hull was partly out of water. They were rotating at dizzying speed. Tom paled as he saw the blur of steel and foam below.

What would happen when the Sea Hound was

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drawn into the whirling blades of Vaxilis’ fiendish device? No doubt the device itself would be wrecked-but by then it would have served its purpose. The seacopter would be battered into shapeless junk, and her crew would die horribly 1

The crewmen stared in helpless dismay.

“There’s still one chance left!” Tom told them, shouting to make himself heard.

Clinging to the control wheel with one hand, he threw a lever, reversing blade pitch, then gunned the throttle and hauled back on the wheel. The rotor hummed as it gathered power.

“If only there’s enough air in the cavity to give us lift!” Tom thought fervently.

Even a partial vacuum might prevent the rotor blades from taking a sufficient bite.

For a few seconds nothing happened. Then, slowly but surely, the rotor lifted the seacopter out of the whirlpool. A moment later they were soaring free!